


Seeking and Finding

by Brachylagus_fandom



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Historical Inaccuracy, Minor Violence, Origin Story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-16
Updated: 2016-09-16
Packaged: 2018-08-13 23:58:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7991104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brachylagus_fandom/pseuds/Brachylagus_fandom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Godric fights. Helga heals. Salazar survives. Rowena dreams.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Seeking and Finding

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lady_Katana4544](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Katana4544/gifts).



Godric fights. Born into war, he is barely a boy when a knife is placed into his hand with the instruction to stick strangers with the pointy end in desperate circumstances; by his tenth birthday, desperate circumstances have come and gone and more than one man's blood has coated his knife. His childhood is death and destruction and the knowledge that if you stop to think for even a second, you will end up dead. He fights and he fights and he tries to reach the top of the slippery hill of victory with blood roaring in his ears; time and again, he fails, and wonders if war can really end at all.

Helga heals. The convent is one of the few sanctuaries in this world, a place for the dying and people they leave behind. At five, her duties shift to include the hospital wing as an area of service and she holds the hands of men she knows will not live through the night. When she is eight, there is a massive campaign not far from them, and she is promoted to healer to fill the gap. That year, she learns to keep miracles at her fingertips and prayers on her tongue; she finds life in death and decay and thinks that she's fallen in love with this life of fixing broken people.

It's nearing her eleventh Christmas, in the so-called Winter of Red Snow, when she first meets Godric. It's just after a particularly nasty battle, so she hardly notices the man in the corner who is slowly bleeding out. By the time the seemingly worse cases are treated, he has passed out on the floor, still holding a comrade's hand. When he wakes four units of blood-replenishing potion and several long pleas at God later, she heaves a sigh of relief and takes in air to berate him with. He grins sheepishly as she lays out, choice by choice, how many hits to the head he must have taken to make such a tremendously idiotic decision.

"I guess I got distracted," he mumbles, and adds before she can start yelling about that, "I'm Godric, by the way. Godric Gryffindor. What's your name?"

"They call me Helga," she replies, as evenly as she can considering the circumstances. "I'm pretty sure your name is Idiot McThick, though." He laughs at that, and she can't help but smile as it snows outside and all war is forgotten.

***

Salazar survives. He's not strong or fast or brave, but servants are supposed to be none of these things unless they're laborers. Servants are not supposed to be observant or smart, either, but he keeps his head down long enough to learn how to lie and spends the rest of his youth masking just how easily manipulation and tactics come to him. At some point, he stops feeling remorse for his actions; at some point, he stops caring.

Rowena is the first to see through his mask to the iron underneath, and she never tells. In truth, it's probably because she's just as much of a liar as he is. Rowena at twelve is a mess of sharp edges and sharp words and starry eyes, and she spends half her life biting back poisonous words. She's never fit into the skin of a lady very well, so she dreams of other places and other times.

She dreams of a castle built not for war but for learning; she dreams of a pig with wings leading her to a deserted moor and a shining lake; she dreams of a peace she has never known and a family she has never had.  Rowena dreams and plots and schemes for a future she's unsure will ever happen, and Salazar is swept up into her storm of fear and hope.

They disappear into the night, heading northwest, the spring they turn sixteen. The past has nothing of value for them; it is time to gamble for a future.

***

It all comes to a head that summer, when the convent burns. Godric is out, practicing with his sword (a shiny new one that looks like Excalibur, given to him as a gift for saving a goblin village) and Helga is picking plants for remedies when the screams start. Within minutes, it becomes clear that the doors and windows are sealed; no one is escaping this alive. As the structure starts to collapse and the air thickens with smoke, Helga begins to choke on the thought that this place isn't safe anymore. It is time to move to someplace else; with Godric's sword skills and her healing abilities, they are valuable assets just about anywhere, so they pick a direction at random and start walking.

On their way to somewhere better, they stumble upon the scene of an ambush. In the middle of the scene, a girl is on her knees next to a boy who is nursing a severe gut wound. Around them lie six men who had presumably tried to attack them. None of the men are moving, and when she sees them approach, the girl removes one of her hands from her attempt to staunch the bleeding and grabs a long knife with her bloodstained palm. The blade gleams, even in the fading light, and there's a slight tince along the edge that makes Helga think poison.

"We're not here to attack you," Godric says, backing off until there's a very small chance the girl could hit him even if she jumped to her feet. "I'm Godric, and my friend Helga's a healer. What happened?" The lines of tension in the girl's body ease as Helga calmly sits herself down next to the boy.

"We were heading north, towards the woods, and were attacked. I dealt with it," the girl answers calmly. "My name is Rowena, and he's Salazar. I don't think the wound's poisoned." She hasn't moved an inch since either of them came, and Godric can see that her grip on the dagger is as steady and sure as any he's ever seen.

"Why are you heading up north?" Helga asks. "Those woods are filled with wild magic, old magic. It's more dangerous than even the war." Rowena frowns, trying to find the best words for this particular task.

"I'm a Seer," she says finally, and Godric knows that's a half-truth at best. "I can see a castle made for peace. A flying boar led me to a mirrored lake and said that I would build the future there. So I'm going there to do that. Salazar didn't want me to go alone, so he came to help me."

"Seriously?" Helga asks as she places the final bandages on Salazar's wound. There is phantom smoke in her eyes, the screams of the trapped echoing through her ears even though it's been over a week.

"Seriously."

"Well," Godric says in a voice that's tired of war, "if we're going to build a castle, then let's get moving. The stone's won't lay themselves."


End file.
